A number of years ago I served in the military with a fine young officer, Lon Simpson, who was from the Lincoln, Illinois, area. During this brief visit to Lincoln, I tried to get in touch with him, but without success.
Today I decided to google him online, and I discovered that he has been recalled to active duty, and is serving in the U.S. Army in Baghdad, Iraq, if the information is current.
Lon did an internship in period furniture-making in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. I knew some years ago that he was planning to retire from the Army to pursue furniture-making full time. I do know that the period pieces he had already made when I knew him were really professional work and well worth owning. There’s a gap there during which I know nothing about his occupation or whereabouts, though I believe he is likely still a resident of the Lincoln area. I’ll keep trying to contact him, and some day I will be successful.
In an earlier post, I mentioned Postville (no pun intended). It was the second town organized in what would become Logan County, but it was so near Lincoln, that within a few years Lincoln had grown around it. The Postville Courthouse has been restored, and it stands on its own block, out on 5th Street. It was home to periodic sessions of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, and was the oldest courthouse on that circuit.
Restored Postville Courthouse in 2010
Court was held there from the building’s completion in 1840 until the Logan county seat was moved to Mount Pulaski in 1848. Yes, Abe Lincoln did practice law in that building. He followed the Eighth Circuit sessions for 25 years.
Postville Courthouse in Lincoln, Illinois
Across the street is the Lincoln VFW, built on the site of the former Deskins Tavern, owned and operated by the sheriff, the actual site of the first court sessions in Postville. For a time in the early tentieth century, the courthouse served as a family dwelling. Author William Maxwell, in his 1971 book Ancestors wrote, “Riding along on my bicycle, I used to send a folded copy of the Lincoln Evening Courier sailing in the general direction of the front door of an unpainted two-story frame building that I knew had once been used as a courthouse. A Negro family lived in it, which seemed only proper since the Great Emancipator had practiced law there.”
Though I had scheduled today to be in Lincoln, it didn’t take long to get out to the site of the photograph that appeared in this morning’s Courrier, showing me leaving town out near Lincoln Christian University.
Eastward Ho
Photo courtesy of Jean Ann Miller, Courrier staff photojournalist.
The weather forecast predicted winds of 20 miles per hour, but I’m pretty sure they gusted to a higher speed during my walk this morning. In fact I had to walk in both directions because the west wind was just too strong for me to ride coming back to the pickup. Jean Ann Miller’s very complimentary article had come out in the morning paper, and a few motorists apparently knew who I was and why I was walking in the wind with a flag on a bicycle. I got lots of appreciative honks and waves.
When I looked online to find out whether the article had been posted to the Internet, it was not yet there, but it stands to reason that it might not be posted while the day is so young. If you’d like, you can look at http://www.lincolncourier.com/news/ tomorrow to find out whether the article is online.
A couple of miles east of Lincoln, I noticed some flags flying at a farmhouse. Among others there was a Stars and Stripes and a small Marine Corps flag. The place seemed to be alive with dogs, and they were very interested in me. Concerned about their safety near the highway, I told them to go home, and, somewhat to my amazement, they obeyed and retreated behind the farmhouse.
It turned out to be a temporary situation because they returned a moment later with reinforcements. I didn’t count all the dogs, but including puppies, there were more than a dozen. I went up the driveway to the house. Reclining in a chair on the back porch was a female manikin, sans head. No one was home, but I made friends with the entire family of dogs, and lectured them sternly about staying off the highway.
I have no idea why, but they thereafter stayed home, and when I returned on the opposite side of the road some time later, I didn’t hear so much as a bark. I’ve now dealt with more dogs in two days than in the entire trip up to now.
I leave Lincoln, knowing that I have only scratched the surface of what is available here spiritually, culturally, historically. I certainly plan to return one day to take up my research into the mysteries of Lincoln, Illinois, and I hope that day is soon.
In terms of progress on the overall walk, I’m somewhere near the halfway mark. Given that I’m mysteriously missing about 13 miles somewhere, I may never know the exact halfway point, but it has to be around here somewhere. I keep looking for a mark on the highway that says something such as “you are now halfway from Quincy to Danville,” but so far I’ve seen nothing of the sort.
If I have to walk in both directions because of a strong wind, the length of the walk could suddenly become much greater than I had bargained for. There’s a big difference between walking 5 or 6 miles, then biking back to my pickup, and walking the same distance in both directions. Of course if I were biking all the way to Danville, I would probably already be there by now, but this is, after all, a walk.
The good news is that I’ve been invited to spend the next 2 nights with friends. I hope showers are part of the deal! Now all I have to do is walk another 120 miles or so to Danville and the Indiana border.
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